There was some doubt during the week as to whether the weather would allow this ride to go ahead. Come Sunday morning though there were dry roads and a drying breeze. All we needed now were riders, and boy did we get riders, 38 all up with 32 starting the longer ride and 6 on the shorter lap. Great reward for the organisers with Peter marking out the short lap at 7:00 am this morning before heading off to work, and Justin doing the honours for the longer ride following Kevin's instructions (almost).
It wasn't long into the ride before Chad returned to base with a broken frame. His elder son Jack carried on to uphold family honours on the long lap and the younger Liam was racing round the short loop 5 times. There was a definate family theme going on with Darlene and Crichton Purdie guiding there three around the short lap. Cheryl accompanied Josh and Tyler representing the Blacks, Rachel joined Jason and Joel in the Madsen Petersen Clark camp and Kathryn and Craig waved the Richards flag.
It was great entertainment watching the next generation on and around the short lap, there were some great skills on display and not a lot of fear.
Glen was quickest on the long lap and Jason would have been next if he hadn't switched off his ears at race brief time. This resulted in a MH320 type diversion towards the end of the first lap adding several minutes to his schedule.
A new name to us, Kyle Fearn was second across the line with a close run thing between Kiel and Kris for the next two slots.
Plenty of ladies too with Kathryn showing her endurance legs to complete two laps.
With 38 riders the soup supplies were stretched but Alana did a great job of trying to feed the five thousand.
All in all a very enjoyable morning and we look forward to even bigger numbers at our Soup n Bun #3.